the city hall insiders spend record high budgets. but our problems get worse. they say this is the best that we can do. they blame the system, but they built the system. i have a plan to change it. with accountability and rooting out corruption, we can tackle our housing and drug crisis, clear the tent encampments and bring our businesses back. are you ready to stop settling and start demanding more? join me in changing city hall. >> norah: tonight, florida braces for impact from hurricane milton as the monster storm spawns tornado super cells. >> that's wicked. >> norah: the breaking news. the storm's new track with landfall coming earlier than expected.

>> it's looking like the storm of the century. >> everbody is woried about the same thing, you know, do i have a home to come back to? >> norah: and hundred thousands are without power with near the eighth quarter of florida's gas stations out of fuel. >> this hurricane is going to pack a major, major punch. >> norah: our interview with four to governor ron desantis from inside the state's command center. the "cbs evening news" starts now. ♪ ♪ good evening. i'm norah o'donnell in washington, along with vladimir duthiers, who is leading our team of correspondents in the path of vladimir duthiers, who i thank you for joining us. and as we come on the air, we are getting new information about this monster storm. a major category three closing in on landfall earlier than expected, along florida's central gulf coast. millions are bracing for impact. now the latest track just in has the eye of the storm hitting the sarasota area. that is just south of tampa, a region that hasn't had a hurricane this powerfl in more than a hundred years.

milton's wind and rain bands are humongous, stretching for about 350 miles. there are mandatory evacuation orders in 15 out of 67 counties, but officials now say it is too late to get out. president biden spoke about that from the white house just a short time ago. >> at this point, evacuation is probably difficult. so i encourage people to look for safer shelter. sometimes moving just a few miles can mean the difference between life and death. >> norah: the storm is also unleashing an outbreak of tornadoes. there have been more than 100 warnings today and at least a dozen are confirmed to a have touched down. cbs news teams are spread from florida's west coast all the way to the atlantic, across milton's entire path. vladimir duthiers is going to lead off our coverage today from tampa. good evening, vlad. >> vlad: good evening, norah. you can see behind me, the rain has picked up.

the national weather service is saying that the gusts that we are seeing behind us right now are 65 miles an hour and further south 75 miles an hour. the rain is drenching the ground, which is going to make that storm surge when it comes that much more difficult to deal with. the latest view from the international space station shows just how large and how menacing milton is. it is more than twice as wide as the florida peninsula, and it's expected to maintain hurricane force all the way from the gulf coast to the atlantic. cbs's rob marciano is about 45 miles down the coast from here, in bradenton, with new information just in on milton's path. rob, what's the latest? >> reporter: well, vlad, i can tell you this, we are gusting to hurricane strength here and our phones just went off saying in this county emergency services have been suspended. i expect our phones to go off again in just an hour or so. they say extreme wind warning is going to be in effect. the latest on the storm is that it is less than 50 miles off the coast now and moving at about

15 miles an hour, so that means it is coming in before midnight and we are going to get hurricane-force winds and some of those extreme winds over 100 mile-per-hour in the next hour or two. so we have already seen over 100 reports or tornado warnings. several reported tornadoes. flooding rains, and more of that is all to come. the track itself is going to come right over bradenton, looks like, landfall around 9:00 or so, and then traverse the entire peninsula, be offshore tomorrow morning, but retain hurricane strength right off, right off the space coast. heavy rain, flood, storm surge south of the line, south of tampa bay, up to 14 feet. so emergency services are not going anywhere. that means residents aren't going anywhere until this thing passes, and we've got a long night ahead of us. vlad? >> vlad: indeed. rob marciano reporting tonight. thank you, rob. now folks, for days, facials have been telling people if you are in an evacuation zone, leave.

now the national weather service says it is too late for that. find a safe place and stay there. cbs's jonathan vigliotti has been speaking with people who are out riding the storm right here in tampa tonight. good evening, jonathan. >> reporter: and good evening to you, vlad. already more than 5 inches of rain have fallen. a lot of flash flooding here in tampa, and we are expecting anywhere from 12-18 inches when all is said and done. we are here in downtown. the streets are pretty clear, but for those that have chosen not to evacuate, they are going to be riding out a storm that the tampa mayor says is unsurvivable. there are a number of threats, we've been talking about them all day long from storm surge to flash flooding to extreme wind. one of the biggest issues we have noticed is all of the storm debris from hurricane helene two weeks ago, this community literally in the middle of picking up the pieces when they had to drop everything to evacuate. now you add that wind to all of that debris, quickly turning it into deadly projectiles. thousands of first responders are here on the ground, search-and-rescue teams staged here in tampa.

they are sheltering during the storm, meaning if there are emergency calls, they are going to have to wait to respond until after the hurricane. you also have 50,000 linemen that are being brought into the state from all over the country, as far west as california, to help restore the power. vlad, right now, officials warning it could take several weeks. >> vlad: yeah, jonathan, and tampa mayor jane castor telling us surge of 9 feet is on unsurvivable. jonathan vigliotti reporting for us tonight. thank you, jonathan. now southwest florida is bracing for that major surge of seawater. the fort myers area was devastated by hurricane ian two years ago, and it is expected to be battered again tonight, so there is concern about wind, rain, surge, and tornadoes. let's go about 130 miles south to cbs's nicole valdes in fort myers, in a neighborhood where a suspected tornado touched down. nicole? >> reporter: vlad, this was the roof of someone's home,

ripped off by one of at least a dozen tornadoes that touched down in just a matter of hours. all while floridians braced for a hurricane. powerful drone video, rather ring camera video, showing that powerful hurricane blowing through trees in this neighborhood. this has been quite the scene here for so many. our team moving further inland tonight to escape the storm surge threat that of course is still a life-threatening situation, while more than 100 tornado warnings blared across the state. another threat in an already life-threatening storm. the mayor of fort myers fears the worst for those still in the city tonight. >> i'm praying for their safety, and i hope they survive. >> reporter: you hope they survive? >> yes. >> reporter: now, all this debris, the shattered glass, the broken wood from beams and walls, that's adding another threat to even inland

communities as hurricane-force winds are expected to continue well into the morning. vlad? >> vlad: all right, nicole, and we just got a warning on all of our devices, a siren warning us about this hurricane. thank you very much, nicole, stay safe. now millions of floridians heeded that evacuation order and they did get out of the way. but heading inland isn't enough to avoid milton. it will be hurricane all the way across the state. cbs's manuel bojorquez is in orlando speaking to people who evacuated but are still going to feel milton's effects. good evening, manny. >> reporter: vlad, good evening to you. as you can see, the rain has started to fall here in orlando. it's been falling pretty steadily over the last several hours, that's raising concerns that the flooding predicted for this part of central florida could happen overnight. as the storm creeps closer, people are rushing to make last-minute preparations. >> i would encourage anybody who is looking for gas or who can get out to go top off before the

storm hits. >> reporter: one nearly silent place, orlando international airport, which shut down for commercial travel at 8:00 a.m. eastern. nancy and norman stewart rode out helene two weeks ago in her tampa home, but with him in a mobility chair, they were not willing to take a chance on milton this time. >> we thought we would ride it out, and then our kids said, i don't think you guys should do that. >> reporter: now in an orlando hotel, they worry about those who stay behind. >> people that can't get out, that have no way out, people that chose not to get out, i have lots of -- we have lots of friends that are staying in our building, and they will be completely safe. the problem is the surge, if it comes up to 10-12 feet, then what? >> reporter: and earlier today, the major tourist attractions here in the orlando area closed until further notice. vlad? >> vlad: manny bojorquez for us tonight.

manny, thank you very much. as you can see, cbs news teams are out in force tonight across the storm zone. we will have updates throughout the night, streaming at cbs news 24/7, and full coverage first thing tomorrow on "cbs mornings." norah, the national weather service has been setting out alerts. our phones have been blaring just in the last minute. back to you. >> norah: vlad, thank you for your reporting. stay safe out there. joining us now from florida's command center is governor ron desantis. good evening, governor desantis, thank you for being with us. this is, i don't have to tell you, a monster storm. president biden said it looks like the storm of the century, and landfall is now earlier than expected. is your state ready? >> governor desantis: oh, absolutely. as you mentioned in the report, we have 50,000 linemen staged, ready for rapid power restoration. we also have a full mobilization of the florida national guard, as well as receiving a lot of assets from other states, and so it will be the largest search-and-rescue function that we've ever done. now i do think a lot of people

did get out, and i hope we don't have to affect a lot of rescues, but we will be ready. i also would just say, it has been somewhat good news that it has weakened. it is now a category 3. it is still a very dangerous storm, but the fact that it has weakened and the fact that is is moving quicker means that is going to come ashore before high tide that may mean you have a mitigation of the storm surge but we are also telling floridians, it is going to be a hurricane all the way across the state. if you are on the east coast of florida, you can get storm surge on the other side, so this is a very fragile 24 hours, so just hang in there, listen to your emergency management folks, and stay safe. >> norah: i know florida opened hundreds of shelters, including some of last resort for motorists who got stuck while evacuating. are your shelters full? are there any reports of people stuck already? >> governor desantis: no, we have plenty of room in the shelters. look, at this point, if you are on the west coast of florida, it's probably too dangerous to go to a shelter, but one of the

things we've done in florida is stress that when you shelter, you don't have to get on the interstate and drives hundreds of miles. we have places, even in the counties that are in the eye of the storm, that are inland, that are not susceptible to storm surge, but that are hurricane-proof, any of the places we use as a shelter is going to be able to withstand a category 3 storm. we had tens of thousands of floridians who did that, but then we also have a lot of floridians who evacuated from the barrier islands. these are people that tend to have a little bit more means, and i think a lot of them went to friends' house, took lights out, or went to hotels, so by and large, people heeded the call. >> norah: you know, governor, there's a lot of people with friends and family in florida, they are worried about them. what does your state need right now? >> governor desantis: everything we've asked for, we've gotten. i've been working constructively with president biden. we are working, we have marshaled all state agencies, and we are working very constructively with our local partners. we know what we're doing here in florida. we prepare for it. floridians can rest assured, you are going to have a very robust response.

we have been ramping up for this. even as we were recovering from helene, we have been doing it. you had a lot of people who have been working around-the-clock for over two weeks. we know there is a lot more ahead of us, but rest assured, we are not left anything on the floor. we are going out with everything we've got to make sure people are safe. >> norah: it sounds like you are very well deployed there. i noticed you mentioned you have been in touch with president biden, that those conversations have been constructive. just a short time ago, president biden, from the white house, denounced what he called this onslaught of misinformation. he said it's reckless. he said the lies that are out there are un-american. are you also concerned that some of these lies, this misinformation, is undermining confidence in the relief efforts? >> governor desantis: well, i'm not sure what he was talking about, per se. i know there's been a lot of controversy about north carolina. i don't really know what's going on there. i can tell you in florida, when there is a report that somehow was telling people not to evacuate, because fema was somehow going to take over their

homes, i can tell you in the state of florida, that will not happen. i am in charge in florida. we are working with fema to leverage resources, but we make the decisions. you will be allowed back into your home as soon as the storm passes. i put that in the executive order. i think there's some people out there, we live in an age where you can monetize a lot ofthis nonsense online, you can get a lot of clicks, but that is not true in florida so we are going to do it right. your property is going to be protected, and we are going to make sure that you get back on your feet. >> norah: governor desantis, thank you for joining us at this busy time. we are praying for the people of your state. >> governor desantis: thank you. >> norah: and it's not just the gulf coast that's in danger. ahead, we'll look at the threat to florida's east coast, all across florida, when we come back. across florida, when we come back. we are. we have a team of specialists not only in investing, but also in financial and estate planning and more.

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>> we've been here since 2015. >> reporter: jeff hurt and alice gibson moved to this apartment in holly hill to be closer to the beach. the 21st floor of a luxury high-rise. >> a lot of flooding. holly hill gets flooded. >> reporter: and as hurricane milton creeps closer, they are staying put. >> if you have the plan then, you know, that helps. >> reporter: the couple has lived in the area for 36 years, riding out every storm, including hurricane ian in 2022. from their balcony window, they watched the storm surge rise. the same 3-5-foot surge is expected here tomorrow by noon. after ian, it was days before electricity and water were restored. flooding isn't their concern, but high winds are. all the glass surrounding their apartment may not withstand hurricane-force winds. >> if something were to happen, the windows would blow out. that would be the biggest thing. if the windows blowed out. >> reporter: the apartment complex has already warned residents they may shut off elevator access if the storm surge becomes too high. the stairs would be the only way out. >> we have our cell phones charged fully. >> reporter: yeah.

>> we have flashlights. we have water. we have food. and we're retired. so we really don't have to go anywhere. >> reporter: and there is no promise that first responders will come for them if things become too dangerous. >> when you make a decision to stay during a storm, i'm not stranded. i made a decision to stay here. >> reporter: and while jeff and alice tell us that they are not particularly concerned about flooding given the fact they live on the 21st floor, officials are warning that storm surge could wash out roads in evacuation zones. norah? >> norah: tom hanson, thank you so much. president biden is taking aim at donald trump for what he calls outright lies about the government's response to the last hurricane. he says it's un-american. that's next. american. that's next. se, you can reduce the risk of kidney failure with farxiga. because there are places you'd like to be.

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expected. and on the right you are looking at pictures of tampa, where the storm is bearing down. president biden is not pulling any punches today, calling out what he says is reckless and harmful disinformation about the federal government's hurricane response, and he has made it clear, he blames former president trump, today calling his lies un-american. how this is shaking up theht on- presidential campaign. >> reporter: former president donald trump waded into deep blue territory in scranton, pennsylvania, the birthplace of president joe biden, where he criticized the administration's hurricane response and renewed false claims about disaster relief in the wake of helene. >> you know where they gave the money? to illegal immigrants coming in. >> reporter: but even before trump set foot in his hometown, biden fact-checked the former president. >> former president from has led this onslaught of lies. >> reporter: according to cbs news confirmed fema has said

no money has been diverted from disaster response needs, and it found online claims that the agency is only giving storm victims $750 misleading, since the money is designed for immediate relief, but is part of a larger aid program. fema has also reiterated the money does not have to be paid back. lined up for trump's rally tonight told us they don't buy it. >> they are giving illegals thousands and thousands of dollars. it's not right. what happened to america first? >> reporter: you believe those claims even though -- >> yes. i have -- for a fact. i have friends that are up there. >> reporter: vice president harris called the misinformation dangerous. >> it is unconscionable, frankly, that anyone who would consider themselves a leader would mislead desperate people. >> reporter: even as trump doubles down on these claims, his campaign says he's being kept apprised on hurricane milton. nikole killion, cbs news, reading, pennsylvania. >> norah: and we will be right back with an update on hurricane milton. ♪ ♪ >> announcer: this portion of

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florida's doorstep, and its dangerous impacts are already being felt. in addition to devastating winds, milton is also swamping much of florida's gulf coast with a potentially catastrophic surge of seawater, while inland areas face the threats of flash floods and tornadoes. thousands of national guard troops from florida and other states are standing by to help. stay with cbs news 24/7 for streaming updates throughout the night, and we're going to have full coverage first thing tomorrow on "cbs mornings." and that's tonight's "cbs evening news." i'm norah o'donnell. please stay safe, and we'll see you right back here tomorrow. good night. ♪ ♪ >suck the whole roof off and i felt like my kid and my wife were down. . tornadoes signaling the warning that the hurricane is coming. >> conditions are deteriorating as hurricane milton treks towards florida. >> it is the storm of the

century. >> we are tracking the storm hours away from landfall. >> god speed to all of us who are in the way. >> it is scary not knowing what you are going to go back to. this is cbs news bay area with elizabeth cook. i'm anne makovec, if anyone is in the track of the storm time has run out to get out. landfall expected tonight. it is a vicious category 3 storm right now and officials are warning everyone it is a life or death situation. milton is expected to one of the strongest storms to hit the area in decades. a live look from tampa bay. you can see it is lashed by rain and tropical-forced winds this is really only the beginning. the other big issue right now is the debris. still leftover from